Space as the next step for humankind

I always wanted to fly. I imagined it mimicking a nun as a young girl: taking flight into the sky with white dress and habit made of cardboard, the kind cardboard found prepackaged in men’s shirts.

I was successful with the overall look; I stood atop a platform on a well-chosen windy day ready for lift off. But when it came to the countdown, that’s when mortality overcame me with disappointment in a flash…until I quickly shifted into drive and initiated levitation then ascension into the sky. My mind just soared into the bright blue yonder with its collection of the puffiest radiant clouds. I’ll never forget that impression.

To be airborne and ascending, jetting from one destination to another, and even spiraling down, can all be a riveting adventure depending on what aircraft you are using. Hang-gliding, gliding and skydiving are some of the most daring yet increasingly popular sports to encounter at least once in one’s life. But why the fascination with flying?

Our curiosity of flight

Humans have a sensational appetite for flying. They have flirted with all kinds of ways to fly, like Davinci’s dissection of mammals, impeccable drawings of future spaceships and what is known as the ornithopter, or helicopter today.

And while we have flapped our artificial wings or chosen the thrill of being a cannonball to be shot as high as physically possible, we have been blessed by the very brothers that created this possibility to be taken most seriously.

We can only be awestruck and young again to know that we have the greatest hope for our future by exploration within our environment, into the sky and, ultimately, space.

Evolving

A few decades ago, NASA enabled humans to land on the moon, and now we can consider a few options for completely different purposes. Currently, the passion to fly from one end of the globe to another within a short stint or that of being leisurely shot up into space for several minutes can be just for kicks, a further discovery, as well as a daring adventure.

You can see that, as long as we are able and have the technology, we can find endless possibilities for ways to hover, elevate and sail. While we evolve, so too does our purpose. Therefore, we have an obligation and a vested interest in our future—space.

Of course, practice makes perfect and not all efforts to fly have been successful.

There were missions rife with hazards prior to and following Apollo 11, but that never held back a test pilot of integrity like Neil Armstrong. Having developed a fancy for flying at a young age, Armstrong studied aeronautic engineering in university. He eventually joined the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as an engineer and test pilot.

"That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.” Neil Armstrong

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield was so awe inspired by his predecessor that he became unique in his approach to living in space. During his-146-day venture within the International Space Station in 2013, he sang and produced David Bowie’s Space Oddity on camera to renew a fitting song. His cover went viral across all social media. He also recorded many days and events of his last journey into space until it completed safely in May 2013.

Following men on the moon and space station facilitation, Bigelow Aerospace and NASA still find affordable and innovative ways to design their space station so that is roomier and viable for the utmost safety, providing radiation protection and optimum communications whilst travelling on missions.

A new spacecraft resembling the Apollo is in the making. It is to be far greater and more versatile and it will be known as the Orion crew exploration vehicle.

It will have greater capacity for crew members, enabling them to access the space station and land on the moon more frequently. It is estimated that this type of vehicle will aid people visiting Mars over 5 years from now.

Within our own atmosphere, Virgin Atlantic has taken a sustainable bend by testing solar powered airplanes, proving that you can fly an airplane across the globe without the use of fossil fuels.

Utilizing technologies which are clean, productive and innovative is most timely for our environment. On March 9, 2015, the Solar Impulse2 took off from Abu Dhabi to send a unifying message in its 35,000-kilometre flight across the continents, reminding the public that the future should be clean. While flying for a cause is not to everyone’s taste, it provokes the probability of better use of our resources so that we can have a future.

Since 2004, entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson, who has an interest in hot air balloons and commercial aircraft, began a commercial space flight company called Virgin Galactic.

As much as he is risk-taking and stunt-playing, he’s taken his ideas to the utmost level, the limitless sky, without any compromises. The purpose of Virgin Galactic (following Virgin Atlantic) is to take people on commercial trips through space. We call this Space Tourism.

It’s taken many years of specialized ingenuity and testing for SpaceshipTwo to be ready for ultimate take off. Planning a series of routes for traveling patrons to space isn’t exactly an easy task. Despite the recent tragedy and collapse of VSS Enterprise in October 31, 2014, Virgin Galactic is making every effort to start anew.

With a greater vision than before, Virgin’s SpaceShipTwo is nearly completed and will be undergoing its test flight program soon. Many have waited for the opportunity of space flight; celebrities have pre-purchased their tickets for the first launch to space.

LauncherOne is the latest kid on its own block of Long Beach California taking innovative strides to amazing missions of its own. It will launch satellites for all kinds of experiments.

The expectations can be varied for this multi-purpose launcher. It could be used to hunt asteroids and tabulate weather measurements as well as providing broadband internet worldwide. It can further facilitate other satellites for its needs.

“Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand.” – Colin Powell

Whether it’s a dream to discover our atmosphere and deep space, to travel regularly through space until you reach your destination, or to experience flight for the first time in a variety of ways, we are here to inspire ourselves and our children to imagine and experience, in the most sustainable way, a wider scope of all that there is to learn about the immediate and distant future.

“The balloons only have one life and the only way of finding out whether they work is to attempt to fly around the world.” - Richard Branson

Impact (ONLY use the 'Paste From Word' button to safely copy and paste text from a Word doc)

Whether it’s a dream to discover our atmosphere and deep space, to travel regularly through space until you reach your destination, or to experience flight for the first time in a variety of ways, we are here to inspire ourselves and our children to imagine and experience, in the most sustainable way, a wider scope of all that there is to learn about the immediate and distant future.